Ida Olivia Keeling ( Potter, May 15, 1915 – August 28, 2021) was an American centenarian

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete. Trained by her daughter Cheryl (Shelley) Keeling, herself a world record holder, Ida set Masters records in 60 meter and 100 meter distances for women in the 95-99 and 100-plus age groups. Her story was featured in a segment in the

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, author, comedian, director and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades. He was the List of awards and nominations received by Carl Reiner, recipient of many awards and ...

-hosted documentary '' If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast'', on aging over 90, which premiered on

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in June 2017. Ida was also featured on '' Our America with Lisa Ling'' on the

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Sports records

60 metres

In 2011, at 95 years old, Keeling set the world record in her age group for running 60 meters at 29.86 seconds at a track meet in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. On February 24, 2018, Keeling set a world record in the 60-meter dash event at the Imperial Dade Track Classic, with a time of 58:34 in the 100 to 104 age group.

100 metres

In 2012, Keeling set the W95 American record in the 100-meter dash at the USATF Eastern Regional Open Championships with a time of 51.85. She was 97 years old at the time, which made her the oldest American female sprinter. In 2014, at the

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, Keeling set the fastest known time by a 99-year-old woman for the 100-meter dash at 59.80 seconds; at the time the relevant

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1 ...

webpage did not include a 100-meter record for US women older than the 90–94 age division. On April 30, 2016, Keeling became the first woman in history to complete a 100-meter run at the age of 100. Her time of 1:17.33 was witnessed by a crowd of 44,469 at the 2016

Penn Relays The Penn Relays (officially The Penn Relay Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012 ...

Personal life

Keeling's parents, Osborne and Mary Potter, emigrated to the United States from the island of Anegada in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

. She was raised in

Harlem, New York Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan ...

. Keeling's mother died when Ida was young and her husband died of a heart attack when she was 42. She had four children, two of whom, Charles and Donald, died in drug-related killings in 1978 and 1980 respectively. Her elder daughter, Laura, worked as the CEO of two

National Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

affiliates. Her younger daughter, Shelley, is a lawyer and real estate investor who also coached for a local high school. Shelley also coached her mother and first convinced her to run in a "mini-run" at the age of 67. In the book ''Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race against Time'' (2018), by Ida Keeling and Anita Diggs, Ida explained the secret to her health and fitness, stating she worked out 2-4 times a week and attended dancing classes. Her diet consisted of greens, fruit and cod liver oil, and she would have Hennessy with her coffee once a week. She died in August 2021 at the age of 106.

Additional

* List of centenarian masters track and field athletes

References

External links

*
Ida's website "Healthy past 100"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keeling, Ida 1915 births 2021 deaths American women centenarians People from Harlem Sportspeople from Manhattan Track and field athletes from New York City World record holders in masters athletics American people of British Virgin Islands descent British Virgin Islands emigrants to the United States